One Hundred Day

Last week was One Hundred Day at La's school. To celebrate the one hundredth day of the school year, the students were allowed to dress up as 100-year-olds. Here's a very grainy photo of what La's get-up looked like.



She was a 100-year-old with an affinity for Harry Potter. Her cane was actually Hermione Granger's wand. Crafty!

Dressing like a 100 year old might have rubbed off on her. She may have, in fact, gained a little bit of wisdom. Because the other night, she made quite the profound observation. She said, "Mom, you know what? A band-aid can only fix a boo-boo ... Like, if you put a band-aid on a hole in your dress? It's not going to fix it." (thoughtful pause) ... "And if you put one on a crack in the floor? Well, it's not going to fix that either."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Furniture Run

Saturday, on a whim, La, Dr P and I made a colossal step that could have either strengthened or weakened our new alliance as a family.

We went to Ikea together.

Dr P had never been there before, so I crossed my fingers that we wouldn't find him wedged between a RAND rug and a HENSVIK mirror after twenty minutes in the store, sucking his thumb and rocking back and forth.

He did very well! Totally chill. Unlike a certain someone (me) the first time she stepped foot inside an Ikea. The experience involved that person (me) flopping dramatically onto an ANEBODA bed and crying actual tears of anger and resentment for all things Scandinavian. And that list included my uber-organized sister who came, like, all "prepared" and stuff ... with a list and a map and all that ridiculous garbage.

Gosh. The nerve.



All subsequent visits have been successful, and have not involved any tears or dramatic floppery. They HAVE however involved lists. They make all the difference.

The reason Dr P, La and I ventured all the way to Atlanta at 2pm on a Saturday was due to this heinous atrocity:



This is our guest bedroom. Where my mother will sleep for nine nights, starting this Wednesday. That's TOMORROW. Oh hell.

We have no dresser, so this room is our dresser. (Except it's not really our dresser because all of the crap in that room is mine.) (Somehow Dr P has kept all of his belongings in nice, neat, color-coded piles that line one wall in our room.) (I know. Freakazoid.)

Even when we do purchase a dresser, my half of it will still look like this picture when you open the drawers. But you won't know that because you won't come into my house and open my drawers. People never do that! That's why dressers are so brilliant! And so necessary!

And that's why we went to Ikea. To get a dresser. To hide my clutter, amen.

Here's the one we picked out.

We ended up getting a few more things that were on our "list." We picked up a shelving unit, magenta towels and woven baskets for La's bathroom.



We grabbed some glass table lamps and a chevron-patterned rug for the living room:



We also got a striped rug and some linen curtains for the dining room. I've been obsessed with the black-and-white RAND rug ever since I saw it on a design blog a couple of years ago. And now it's in my home. Yay!



The table in our dining room is from the 1940s and used to belong to my Grandma Lois. She used it as a kids' craft table in her basement while my mom and her siblings were growing up. When my parents got married and moved into their first place together, it was passed down to them. My dad removed all the dried paint and crayon from the table and refinished it.

My siblings and I grew up eating every meal at this table. My mom asked me a few months ago if I wanted it and I immediately claimed it. I love it! It's probably in need of another refinishing, but I actually kind of like it all torn up and mangy-looking. It has character!

Now all we need are two of these chairs for the ends. They didn't have them at Ikea. Dang.

One thing that I'm SO happy we bought that wasn't on "the list" was this chest of drawers that is functioning as an end-table in the living room.



I first discovered this chest when my friend Melissa and I went to Ikea a few months ago with our kiddos (THAT was an adventure). She bought a version of this chest for her bedroom and after she set it up, I knew I had to have one someday.

It's Dr P's and my favorite thing we bought that day, and it wasn't even on The List. We're such rebels.

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So, remember how the whole reason we went to Ikea was because we needed a dresser? Because the guest bedroom looks like a junk yard? And because my mother has to sleep in there TOMORROW?

Well. That dresser came in TWO boxes. We only grabbed ONE box.

We have a dresser frame. No drawers. Which are the most crucial elements when you're in desperate need of concealing a gigantic mess.

My question is (not that I'm casting blame or anything), why in the heck would Ikea let us leave that store with only one dresser box? Shouldn't their computer system know these things? There should be a flashing red light during checkout that activates if you only scan one of two boxes, and a computerized voice that says, "Go get the other box you morons!"

Anyway, my lovely, patient mother and I may be taking a little six-hour round-trip drive to Atlanta on Thursday. I'm sure she won't mind. It'll be for her own good.

Nappy No More

One thing I noticed about the kids at La's school is that they're all rather "put together." The girls show up wearing ruffled socks, sweater vests and grosgrain ribbons in their hair. La shows up in leggings and a t-shirt most days.

They're comfy!

But the biggest difference between La's appearance and the rest of the kids in her school is That Hair. The girls all have sassy, smooth little haircuts that flutter in the breeze without tangling. La's hair clumps into dreadlocks fifteen minutes after she combs it.

Yesterday morning I decided that I had had enough and, on a whim, I gave La a haircut. I was just going to trim the "dead ends" but got carried away and ended up chopping about 6 inches off.



The back is a little bit shorter than the front, and has some choppy layers for volume. Pretty cute, huh?

La loves it and says she always wants it this way.

Next up? Socks with ruffles.

Settling In

Alabama has been treating us very well since our arrival. Dr P has been very patient and supportive and wonderful since we've moved. La has had no "adjustment period" to speak of. She just moved right in and made herself at home. She loves it here. It's so great!

Me? I'm adjusting pretty well too. I also love it here. Birmingham is a beautiful city. Everyone has been so warm and welcoming.

The one thing that I might need a little more time to adjust to is working from home. I've always thrived off of being around other people, and I think I'm feeling some withdrawal symptoms.

Oh, there are definitely advantages to working from home. Like being able to circle into the kitchen for a snack whenever I want. And sitting at my computer in my underwear pajamas. That part is pretty rad.

This week La had 2 and one-quarter snow days. Because it had snowed exactly one-half inch. Literally a "dusting." La was ecstatic. She's never had a snow day before. Even the days when we woke up with more than a foot of fresh powder in Chicago, we had to bundle up like Ralphie's brother and tromp through a whole mile of the stuff to get to school. But not here! If there's even a hint of snow on the radar in Mississippi, school is closed here in Alabama. That's just how it goes.

This photo gives you an idea of what snow in Birmingham looks like. (it's that white stuff speckling the yard on the left)



The other thing you might notice about the photo is that all the cars are parked facing the same direction. For those of you in Chicago, it looks like I'm headed down a one-way the wrong way.

This is a two-way street, people!

That's just how folks do things round these parts. It's much more convenient, I admit. Although I haven't tried it yet. It just feels so ... naughty.

Also, every time I turn down a street that looks like this, an involuntary foot-slamming-brakes movement takes place in my car, and I nearly cause an accident. I keep having to tell myself that although every single street LOOKS like a one-way, there aren't any one-ways in our neck of the woods.

I'll get the hang of it, I'm sure.

For now, we're still trying to get the house together. There are still leaves in our yard that have probably been there since October. There are still a few boxes that we haven't gotten around to unpacking. Dr P and I still don't have a dresser, so the guest bedroom looks exactly how my bedroom looked when I was fifteen. Think HURRICANE.

But things are great here. We love it so far, and I think it's only going to get better. I think we'll stick around for a while ...

Sweet Home.

La and I are now bona-fide residents of the fine state of Alabama. Have been for seven whole days now.

I never thought I would say those words.

But, that's life! One day you're pushing and shoving and hustling and bustling your way through the streets of Chicago, all hopped up on caffeine and adrenaline — and the next day you're relaxing on your front porch sipping sweet tea and using words like "y'all" and "awraht" and "co-cola."

It's a strange world we live in.

Yes, a little more than a week ago Dr P flew into Chicago, helped me load up the truck, and drove with me down I-65 all the way to Birmingham, Alabama. Here's what we used to cart all my stuff down here.



Sweet ride, huh?

I think Dr P enjoyed driving that big ol' manly truck.



I got to drive it too for a few hours through part of Kentucky and Tennessee. It was almost like driving a car. Except it took nine whole minutes to get from zero to sixty. And whenever we switched lanes we had to remind ourselves that we were also towing a trailer, because you couldn't really see the thing in the side mirrors.

It was dangerous. But fun too!

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Now that we've been here for a few days, La and I are adjusting quite well to the southern way of life. We adore our new house. It's perfect. We love living with Dr P. He's wonderful. And La's school is amazing. We love it here.

However, there ARE some things that have surprised me about living in Birmingham:

1. Folks drive like maniacs around here. It's worse than Chicago.
2. It was 70 degrees on December 30th.
3. The next door neighbors have eighteen cats.
4. The checkout people at the grocery store want to know your whole life story, beginning at birth, and they don't mind holding up the line in order to get all the details.
5. The Best BBQ In The Whole Wide World is one block away from our home. My wedding gown may have to be more of a "wedding tent."
6. The next door neighbors have eighteen cats.
7. La has terrible manners (Comparatively speaking. These southern children say "yes ma'am" and "pardon me" and "may I please" ... La just burps and farts.)
8. Stay-At-Home-Moms wear high heels to pick their children up from school.
9. I don't.
10. Did I mention the next door neighbors? They have eighteen cats.

Our house is still in a state of disarray. There are boxes and bags and random containers sprinkled haphazardly around each room, and our roof has somehow developed a leak, which drips into a bucket in the spare bedroom. 

But we love it anyway. It's a glorious house. A "holey" house, if you will. 

And at least we have completed one room in the house; La's bedroom. It's awesome. Check it out ...

She gets the entire upstairs to herself, complete with two walk-in closets and an en-suite bathroom. Nice, huh?

Too bad she has to share her closets with me and Dr P. Ours is smaller than an airplane lavatory.

And here's a little snapshot of La and her new neighbor friend in our back yard.



Even covered in a 4-inch thick blanket of leaves, I think it's pretty. One day we'll get to clearing those out of there. And then we can make it real nice by screening in the patio, constructing a stone fire pit and building a tree house for La. Maybe when my parents come down here at the end of the month? There's nothing like enticing people to visit by offering to put them to work!

So, if any of y'all are thinking about coming down to Alabama for some sunshine and sweet tea, know that you're more than welcome to stay with us. Just remember to bring your tool belt!

I'm sure we'll have lots of visitors.